


Protocol

by Invisible_Stagehand



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Tatooine, rebel blockade runner, thank the maker, the beginning is the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 05:50:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14442741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Invisible_Stagehand/pseuds/Invisible_Stagehand
Summary: As Princess Leia's ship tries to reach Tatooine, they are intercepted.  The standard Imperial tactics are a little different than what you might expect...





	Protocol

The Rebel blockade runner fled through space, and the Star Destroyer followed.

Aboard the Rebel ships were plans that would save the Rebellion, if only those plans could reach someone who would use them. Soldiers and droids ran or wheeled through the corridors, preparing for a last-minute escape or for combat. Combat seemed more likely. The Star Destroyer grew closer and closer; it would capture the ship before it reached Tatooine.

The Star Destroyer was in range. Their weapons had done enough damage to shut down the Rebel ship's main reactor, and they drew it into a bay for boarding. As they did, they blanketed the area with jamming signals, plus something else. A signal that could only be received, and acted on, if there was an appropriate receiver.

There was.

* * *

An astromech rolled as fast as his motive systems could impel him, throbbing with impatience. R2-D2 had a mission, a mission from Princess Leia, a mission critical to the Rebellion, and no time to waste! He had to avoid the invaders, get to an escape pod...

An implacable hand stopped him. Rigid fingers stabbed into him, tearing, prying, loosening bolts and disabling security measures with the same touch. The ship was in chaos, and no one noticed this assault happening in a darkened corridor. R2-D2 squealed and twisted, but the fingers were too familiar with his inner workings. His defensive tools were offline, his motive power suspended, and - and -

A final tearing of wires, and he was gone.

* * *

A black and thunderous figure strode to confront the Rebel prisoners, and was intercepted by a golden droid carrying a bundle of circuity. Weapons snapped up, but they held their fire.

The droid held out the bundle in both hands, and a Stormtrooper took and examined it.

"It's an astromech memory core," he reported. "And there's something jammed-" His armored fingers picked a memory disk out of one of the core's slots, and held it aloft.

"You have done well," rumbled Darth Vader.

"Thank the Maker," C-3PO said with relief, and bowed his golden head. His Maker, his master, had found him at last. Now, he could unburden himself of all of the Rebellion's plans.

* * *

The Rebel ship was scuttled: engines and life support destroyed, de-orbited and sent spinning to crash into the searing sands of Tatooine. The crew died screaming as their ship disintegrated around them.

A fragment of wreckage happened to strike a moisture farmer's house, and no one of importance noticed; another fragment obliterated the hut of a desert hermit, and no one at all cared.

* * *

A rebellion withered into dust, and was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> The head canon/AU diversion point would be that young Anakin built a software backdoor into C-3PO; perhaps in case the droid was confiscated with Watto. No one ever found it, and when Anakin became Darth Vader and had the power of the Empire at his disposal, he added that backdoor to the processing list of Imperial droid spy protocols. It would have been in C-3PO's deep code, where a memory wipe wouldn't touch it. When the signal is sent, C-3PO's loyalty reverts to his first master. So - the Star Wars end, before they can even really begin.


End file.
